Child safety continues to pose a major concern in all commercial industries, particularly the automotive sector where safety is a key differentiator. Car seat design has undoubtedly saved countless lives in vehicle collisions. However, child death can also occur as a result of hyperthermia, heat stroke, dehydration and other heat related illnesses resulting from the child being left unattended in motor vehicles in their car seats. Typically, this occurs as a result of the caregiver simply forgetting the child is in the car and then inadvertently locking the child within the car. This is especially problematic with infants and toddlers, as they are often left restrained in a car seat (while the internal temperature of the vehicle increases due to hot weather conditions or at the other extreme, reduces to a severely low temperature).
Based on the foregoing, there is a need for a mechanism to detect presence of a child in a car seat and to notify a caregiver or emergency responder.